EverAfter, Book One: Illusions
by Kasan Soulblade
Summary: Ever After, it's how all the tales end, but sometimes the ending is only the new beginning.Sequel to Song of the Seagulls, post game fanfic.
1. Prologue: Dark Musings

**EverAfter**

By Kasan Soulblade

Book one: Illusions

_Author's note: This opening -the first page of the book if you will- that will be the new beginning to what will eventually hold a re-write of the story "Everafter". The original text may be found on Kasuto's website under my old pen name "Swift Kithkuun". While the events of the story will change little, they will be added upon and all errors that existed in the original will be corrected, even if this means adding chapters. My writing style has change significantly and the re-write's going to take "full" advantage of that... Think of this as a teaser… I'm going to finish "Song" first but this is a glimpse into what that project will lead into. Those who fear for the "Shards" series, I'm not abandoning, but I'm taking a break from it for a while so I can come back to it with a clearer perspective and fresh ideas._

_**Prologue**_

"_Good and Evil" an exert of the "Book of Flame and Night_"

It's all heart breaking and simple, good and evil.

No, I did not mean "heartbreakingly simple" I meant what I said

Good and evil are absolute, good and evil come into conflict, evil reigns for a time then good "wins".

That's the simple part.

For the heartbreak, well to be evil one must have a broken heart. One must feel pain, despair, loss, and be broken by such things. One must hunger to spread these things in others. So evil spreads, like a ripple on the still pond of life, it goes farther out, and thins even as it stretches out…

Eventually it reaches some isolated village, some small valley, and it disrupts something there.

The nature of the disruption hardly matters, if it leads to a death then so much the better.

So much _purer_ the crusaders cause.

Retribution is swift, the thinnest veneer of evil's presence is killed, and the innocent who takes up blade decides to go off and uproot the rest of the problem.

As if evil was a weed, a nuisance, which could be merely uprooted.

If it were I might be tempted to go out and give it a try. "Uprooting evil" looks to be a profitable venture, the status and power that it garners would sweeten the pot if financial gains were perhaps not to scale with the effort exerted in eradication.

Why look so shocked? Money is a lure; it's a type of power.

Ahh now you see! Recognition flashes in your eye as an answer springs unbidden to your lips. Greed, you mouth, greed is the answer, the core of it all. Greed is a basic evil that even the most simple of children can grasp; it is a simple answer, and the root of it all. The root of all evil is greed, is that not some obscure Hylian saying?

Yet… what you call greed I call self preservation.

It's possible to argue it over and over again -to nitpick over the details- but what point is there in that?

Hold to whatever edicts you like, hold to whatever illusion you love, if that brings you comfort then what poor words of mine could wrench you from such a fitting union? A fool to their lies, the parting is hard and bitter and sadly rare.

Rare are the ranks of the truly wise, rarer still are those who listen to the wise.

Am I wise?

Perhaps.

If I am then it is a bitter wisdom is found in loss as I have lost everything. I have lost home, family, even the choice of holding my own fate. I can not die, even as you can not. Oh you may pass from this world… if only to be reborn. Or your title may manifest on the shoulders of your children or some other hapless child… and being that title, because you claim that title and therefore _are_ that title, you never die.

You never forget because they never forget you, hence even if rebirth is not literal it still occurs.

If it is remembrance that causes all of this, then ignorance would be a salve to all of our pains, Ignorance though, might very well prove fatal. Not to us, because if ignorance did occur we would be gone long ago, but fatal to all those who remain. So it is in that possibility that we endure, or perhaps it is why I endure this inane cycle of your good and evil.

Yes, _your_ good and evil, I would never lay claim to it.

Yours is the type of evil that can be slew by a sword of masterful make.

Yours is the type of evil that can be uprooted with will and strength.

It's the evil I stopped believing in long long ago.

My evil is that of the broken heart. Your evil is the monster of fang and claw.

Your answer is found at the crimson end of a silver arch of a gleaming blade.

My answer is in the ages that have passed and the ages that will come.

My answer comes from the air that is rasped by passing halls of glittering fang.

You look to the light in guidance I look through the dark. Who then, is the more blind? For, to look into light only or to look into dark only, both would eventually be struck blind. Is a measure of blindness even relevant then? I imagine it is as relevant as the shades of color are to a man who has no eyes.

But I stray, I regress…

You can not comprehend the contradictions, I can see that when I see your eyes. So golden is the glory, so pure the light, you can only comprehend that. So too must I then draw on the light of simplicity to get my words through your thick cavernous skull.

Vengeance, greed, and hate, all are evil.

Justice, selflessness, and love are good.

Yet justice is vengeance, the ultimate selfless act is an act equated with greed, and love and hate are but one and the same. Justice, to right a wrong using force, is that not the same as vengeance? Selflessly giving your life for a cause, could that not be called suicide? Is not suicide an act of greed?

For love and hate, how could two opposites be bound you ask?

Simply, very simply I reply.

Love and hate are born of passion, one destroys the other creates. But hate to a creature that brings destruction, hate like that which is acted upon results in the destruction of the creature. Does that not bring life back to a ravaged land? Love, love that is twisted, misunderstood, has brought forth the greatest tragedy has it not?

Perhaps in the end it is seeking of simplicity, the act of embracing willing blindness for the sake of comfort that is the true evil.

Or perhaps it is the catalyst for true evil to come amongst us.

Perhaps, just perhaps-

(End of exert)


	2. recollection and a pictobox

Chapter 1

Picto-Box

Author's note: I published the intro somewhere else and.. I know I should have re-written it more but I didn't really want to so I swiped and edited it. After the intro though the story changes. The events in chapter one need to have a longer lead up to them as I felt the old version of "Everafter" went too fast paced and jumped around. So I fix it by slowing down and re-introducing everyone. In a reviews someone asked a question about the abstract text, my only response at the moment is what makes you think the "speaker" in that chapter was sane?

"Do you understand boy?" Came a familiar voice. The tone was as soft as wind kissing the desert sand, and as deep as the pit its owner now resided. "In the end it all comes down to passion. Passion drove me from my people and to this land; it drove me to claim Hyrule and the Triforce of power. Can you guess boy? Can you guess what happened?"

The sky was falling, the great net of light that kept the ocean at bay.. Soon the Golden Land would be gone. Water would fall like tears from the forgotten gods and wash it away.

"The Hero came, wielding the Triforce of Courage he and Zelda sent me to that which they called the Sacred Realm."

With the sound of glass shattering the net of light above there heads broke. Water fell between them, a curtain of sound and movement. The speaker was little more then a dark blur, his detailed robes a smear of red and black. Water swept across the dull gray stones, reached out with liquid hands to strangle the ancient land. The falling ocean lapped at Link's toes. It was cold, that water, bitterly cold.

Yet it was not the water that made him shiver.

In that blur of darkness, untouched by natural laws, were two bright orange eyes.

"I learned something there boy. Something so dire that Death itself bows before me."

The water was closing in; it sloshed along the sides of the tower. Hyrule, Land of Light, drowned. Soon nothing would be left but the top of the grim tower.

"Of the three virtues shall their come three ages. The last age which you live in now, there is a prophecy." Link found a sword in his hand, felt his feet move towards the speaker. _No_! His soul screamed. _Not again_! Desperately he tried to loose the grip on his sword. His knuckles turned white he could feel the hilt digging painfully into his palm. Suddenly he was less then an inch from the waterfall that separated them.

"When all the three virtues fall low shall the last be known. Of the darkness from the darkness shall the Golden Land rise. Its brilliance is faded and it's ways gone. Weep ye all with me for that which is lost shall never be reclaimed."

Tears blurred Link's vision, but if they came from the grim words or fighting the inevitable he could not tell. Evil's Bane throbbed in his hand, egger to taste its foes blood. As if cursed his feet went into a sprint, his hands shifted their grip on the Master Sword. For a second the waterfall from the sky pounded him. His tears were jerked from his eyes. He could see, and the forgotten gods forgive him, he did not wish to see! Just a glimpse of dark skin, fiery hair plastered to the skull by the sea's wraith. Those eyes the color of the setting sun met Link's ocean blue. There was no mad grin on that sun browned face, no slash of white teeth that put images of wolves in his head.

Using one of the statues to gain height which was a valuable asset considering that he was but a child and his enemy a grown man Link griped onto slick scales and icy stone until at last he stood framed by two monstrous wings. From his perch he turned with what felt to be surreal slowness.

Absently Link ducked the katana swipe that would have taken off his head, even as his hands scrambled for a firm grip on wet stone. A scream, _she_ screamed, no doubt thinking him dead. Yet there was no fear in Link, no fear, and in Ganondorf's cold eyes only a clam understanding. With a light spring he leapt from statue to robed solder. Hands moved against his will, turned the Master Sword a half cycle. Even as his soul screamed against it his arms plunged down.

Ganon, the Dark King, sank to his knees. The Master Sword buried up to the hilt in his skull. Blood slid from an eye like a tear, dripped from his chin and made Link wonder if the tip was lost somewhere in Ganon's beard. Free at last, for History had played out yet again, Link allowed his legs to go out under him. Impossible as it was Ganon's mouth parted, half words half gurgle came from those lips.

"Not over.. only has begun... death opens the gate.."

"Forgive me," Link whispered, his mortal tears mixed with gods woes. "I never meant to cause such pain."

"Destiny.. no regrets.."

Something pierced the darkness that was festering inside of him. A spark of hope, a way to make amends. "The dark prophecy, how do I stop it?"

"When golden land rises..three must be..cause..arm same."

"Three? Ganon who are the three?"

Then came the king's voice, his aged voice was raised in a prayer to the ancient god's whose names Link could no longer remember.

Then down came the golden light, and the dark tower and ocean were washed away.

X

"'Hoy!"

Seeing the target of her yell roll out of his bed with a loud cry Aryll laughed.

"You are so lazy big brother! And let me guess? You forgot it _again_?"

"Ung..." Link opened his dark blue eyes, stared dumbly at the young woman before him, trying to put a voice to the strange face. She had a mop of sandy blonde hair and laughing black eyes, her nose while not grotesquely large could by no stretch of the imagination be called small. She patiently waited, then flashed him a wide white grin and his mind shook itself awake.

"You've been sleeping in, on _my_ look out, and it's your birthday. If Grandma gives you another green tunic and hat I'm going to stay inside that way the bird wont get me."

Link laughed weakly, pushing aside the horrors of his dream he even managed a smile. It wasn't too surprising that he dreamt of the rains, after all it had only been three years since...

"'Morning Sis."

"Good _afternoon_ big brother."

Link winced.

"You weren't always this nasty."

Aryll laughed, and this time someone else joined in. Link whirled and stared at other blonde haired woman. Her locks were a golden hue, and time had persuaded he to ware her hair down instead of curling it up into that upside down fish hook style she used to favor. The pirate grinned, ran a hand through her golden locks and then chuckled evilly.

"Well Hero, it's good to see you up and about. And I have to admit, Aryll _is_ right, waking you up is funny to watch."

"Aryll have you been trotting out tale-"

"'Hoy shrimplet!"

Link whirled and there was a painful flash of light and a familiar mechanical whirl...

"Niko, give me back my Picto-Box!"

"I'm open!" Aryll squealed.

Blinking, trying to see again -and no longer wondering why the monsters he snapped shots of looked so dazed afterwards- he was aware of the short dark shape in front of him pulling back... Then something red and squarish whirled over his head.

"Got it!"

"Bowl him over sailor!" Tetra's voice was choked with laughter.

"Aye aye, Miss Tetra!"

Niko hit him in a flying tackle and Link fell over, the small pirate firmly wrapped around his legs and pinning him. Lazily Tetra strolled over, reached down and pulled the hat off of his head.

"So what's it going to be, Hero? Your dignity or your dignity? Aryll will probably show off that picture to everyone in Outset and I think I have a new flag for the ship on hand.

"Not if I catch you both first and make you give over the booty, you... pirates!"

"Takes one to know one!" Aryll teased, waving the Picto Box like a trophy.

"You know she has a point." Aryll grinned and Tetra's lips were twitching though she was fighting to keep a straight face while she talked. "Since you signed that contract you are technically a pirate..."

"Well... ummm..." Link frowned. "I'll think of something to say... just give me-"

"A year?" The small pale pirate smirked and Link glared at him.

"Quick, while he's throwing Niko overboard!" Aryll hissed to Tetra.

Both girls ran to the ladder and Link glared at the short pasty pirate.

"You can't... don't you dare I'm superior to you Swabbie, more seniority it nothing else, and..."

Niko managed a loud scream as he fell off the side of the tower and landed into the great sea with a spectacular splash.

Rolling their eyes, the fishermen who was returning with the afternoon's catch steered his vessel to pick up the floundering pirate.

Not that Link noticed he was going down the latter full speed, the question of who he was going to chase and catch first was running though his mind.

He decided when he saw Aryll standing only a few feet away from him, her sandals almost sunken into the soft sands of Outset beach. She waved the Picto-box and made a few comments about him being slow. That decided him, drawing out his steel sword in a show of mock ferocity he advanced on his sister. Aryll laughed, then bolted. Even as he chased his Sis up the winding path -up to the bridge that started it all- he failed to notice that on the pirate's vessel the traditional skull and cross bones picture was being lowered, and a small little green hat was being raised in it's place


End file.
